<p>The Board is changing it for the year of 2012-2013. I'm taking it next year and I want to know if anyone has any information about this.</p>
<p>As the summer progresses and my hs starts sending the summer hw, i will be able to find out generally whats going on.</p>
<p>New exam format–you’re given a formula sheet–it’s not very much and are given a 4-function calculator to do test problems. There are grid ins like the SAT on the MC.
More essays, I hear it is more lab/math/statistics based and the plant unit is being removed (plant form/function)</p>
<p>[AP</a> Central - AP Biology Course Home Page](<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>AP Biology Course – AP Central | College Board)</p>
<p>^OH~ Embarrassing, I forgot all about AP Central… </p>
<p>@tangentline Whew~! I heard that the plant part in AP Biology was always a pain. But more essays…</p>
<p>Yeah, and I think they’re removing a little bit of the details involved in human systems as well :-(</p>
<p>sounds like there will be less topics but more specific</p>
<p>Oh okay, I hope there isn’t a BIG difference. But I do hear a lot of complaints about the curriculum in my school.</p>
<p>I took AP Biology this year and there was a ridiculous amount of information expected to be covered. Towards the end of the year we were just cramming as much information as we could for the exam, and it really made the class awful. We couldn’t go in depth very much either which was really disappointing when we were covering genetics. Be thankful that they are dropping plants altogether and reducing some of the anatomy and physiology.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree. The AP Biology teacher said to my Chemistry teacher that, she had to rush everything at the end. Her class did tons of work on the last day of school lol.</p>
<p>I would recommend to anyone who is taking it this year to buy a review book. I used Princeton Review this year and it helped a lot. Other people recommend Barron’s but I feel PR is much more concise and cuts things down to the minimum so you know what exactly you should understand for the exam.</p>
<p>Is FLVS going to change their course structure for AP Bio then? Because i am taking bio on there this year.</p>
<p>I took the AP Biology Pilot Exam this year. </p>
<p>The multiple choice was very similar to typical MC questions. They did, however, seem to focus on broader principles and lab/experimentation/scientific theory rather than specific terms and details.</p>
<p>There was then a short mathematics section with gridding, like on SAT and PSAT. It’s easy math–one was finding the slope on lab data, the other involved finding probability from a pedigree. </p>
<p>The free responses varied with the version of the Pilot Exam. Mine involved making a table and explaining broad principles. </p>
<p>It seems the exam is focusing less on detail and more on broader processes and principles of biology.</p>
<p>^Oh goodness, I have a feeling like I’m not going to like this “New AP Biology”. I’m bad with math too lol. </p>
<p>@biovball I’m guess they would have to. I’m not so sure with FLVS’ policies.</p>
<p>I also took AP bio… I’m looking at some sample questions for the biology exam and it looks much easier and more thought-based than the one I took. By the final quarter, a month before the AP exam, we did plants in two weeks and all seven (or however many) systems in two weeks. </p>
<p>It was ridiculous. I’d much prefer this exam, but the last AP bio exam was pretty simple, too.</p>
<p>
yesssssss free points</p>
<p>Maybe the exam will be more easier. I just hope the class won’t be rushed. But this could be a good thing, because the Board did say that a lot students lack the overall messages in Biology.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how the new curriculum functions in the classroom. The AP Bio teacher at my wife’s school has had a huge amount of success over the past decade teaching non-honors students AP Biology. The percentage of 4s and 5s earned by students in his class has been well above national averages (and my wife teaches at an at-risk high school where fewer than 65% of the students graduate. If the new curriculum and exam require significantly more math and writing (the two subjects that are weak links in this particular high school) the implications for success in the new AP Bio are not positive for this group of students.</p>
<p>I’m actually glad that they changed the test. When I took AP Bio two years ago, our class literally had to cram half of the course’s information within the last 2 months and I really didn’t learn anything. The way the course is now, you’ll probably end up learning more, which is definitely a good thing.</p>
<p>^That’s good. I hate cramming material, especially near the end of school.</p>